CHEMICAL FREEZE PROTECTION
Use Modern Chemistry for Hardier Plants ...
- ROOT STIMULATOR:
Apply every 1 to 2 weeks a root stimulater. The one I use helped me save many abused palm
babies with virtually no roots. It supposedly optimizes drainage and the retention of fertilizer
in any growing medium. This root stimulator is called SUPERTHRIVE and can be purchased at nurseries or from:
Vitamin Institute
5411 Satsuma Avenue
North Hollywood, California 91601
Phone: 213-877-5186
Improve Transplanting and Plant Growth:
Growers in Florida, when transplanting large bare-rooted palms dust the bottom of
the cane roots with Rhizopon AA #1 dry powder rooting hormones distributed by the
Hortus USA Corporation.
The company has different root-stimulating products and researches new
techniques for transplanting
i.e. a soil soak or root immers with solutions containing Rhizopon
AA Water Soluble Tablets.
- BIO-CATALYST:
Spray your plants bi-weekly with an Enzymic Activated Stabilized Biologic Catalyst to
make them grow faster, healthier, and cold hardier. It enhances the plant's intake of
fertilizer (so you need to fertilize less) and speeds up growth of the root system. The
product is a leaf spray called Ecosane. Contact
the following company:
EKMA Ag Inc.
Box 560186
Miami, Fl 33256
Phone 305-667-7175
see a third-party add for Ecosane.
here's another inthusiast study of ecosane.
- COPPER-BASED FUNGICIDE:
can be sprayed on the foliage and acts in the same way as potassium fertilizer by displacing water with copper. Daconil and products like that work real well. That needs to be sprayed on 2 to 3 weeks in advance of freezing weather and probably a couple of applications.
- POTASSIUM FOLIAR SPRAY:
Dyna-Gro's Pro-TeKt is a liquid form of potassium silicate that can be sprayed on 24 to 48 hours in advance of a freeze. You may reapply every 3 weeks as necessary. Keep in mind that the plants will take in more of whatever you're spraying either early in the morning or late in the evening. In the middle of the day they're shut down and it's harder for them to foliar feed.
- ANTI-TRANSPIRANT:
Anti-Stress 550 is a latex and acrylic-based anti-transpirant, sprayed directly on the plant creates a coating of protection. The foliage needs to be wet, so apply one coat, let it dry, then apply another coat.
During the freezes of 1989 and 1990 tests using different types of anti-desiccant and anti-transpirant sprays showed that cold hardiness was increased from 4 to 6 degrees F.
Another widely used brand is Wilt-Pruf.
- HEAT GENERATING CHEMS:
Tri-sodium phosphate and tri-sodium chloride, two chemicals, which mixed in a paint can half full of water, generate heat. If you've ever used Borax to wash your hands you may have noticed that it gets warm. That's because it has a small amount of Tri-sodium phosphate in it. It's a chemical reaction between these chemicals and water that generates heat.
Citrus growers put cans of water underneath their trees, then when the temperature reaches freezing they add Tri-sodium phosphate to the water (because the reactio only lasts for 4 or 5 hours). They turn on their sprinkler systems as a last resort.
Grant Stephenson
Horticultural Consultants, Houston, TX.
Hou,TX Area Chptr IPS V11,I1,Jan.2k.
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